Liesl Bower had an idyllic childhood – that didn’t last very long. Soon family trauma took over, and after witnessing the murder of her Harvard music professor, she sought refuge in the familiar notes of the classical greats. When she sees a face from her past in the audience during a concert for the President, her quiet existence is shattered. Soon international spies hunt Leisl to find a piece of information mistakenly placed with her belongings. Can Leisl find the missing information before heads of state are assassinated – and before Russian retaliation finds her?
I LOVED this book!
It’s not easy to achieve the perfect balance of suspense and romance, of intrigue and honesty, of double agents and forgiveness, but that is exactly what Sue Duffy has done in The Sound of Red Returning. Definitely not predictable, this suspenseful story will keep you on your toes as you try to determine exactly whom is spying for whom and just who has no hidden angles.
Although beautiful and amazingly intelligent, Liesl does not have it all together and does not appear as a plastic character. She grows and matures throughout the story, not only through her faith, but in her awareness of self and others. She develops compassion for those around her, which was seemingly missing as she dealt with the treachery of her family and mentor. Liesl’s pain makes you want to cheer her on and her early selfishness induces frustration, but that only adds to her reality.
While I am anything but political, I enjoyed the way that Duffy wove together the intrigue that sets the stage for this story. Each scene, each memory becomes important as it pops back up later and adds fuel to the hotbed of activity as the CIA races to find the missing name before the Russians can claim it. Duffy intertwines these memories together with Liesl’s travels and musical experiences in such a way as to make the reader hop forwards and backwards in time as events become important. While this may sound confusing, Duffy does so seamlessly, keeping the pace of the action high and the reader guessing through each turning page.
The Sound of Red Returning is a new trilogy by Sue Duffy. The next two cannot be released fast enough.
Read an excerpt here.
Sue Duffy is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Moody Magazine, The Presbyterian Journal, Sunday Digest, and The Christian Reader. She is the author of Mortal Wounds (Barbour, 2001) and Fatal Loyalty (Kregel, 2010). Sue has also contributed to Stories for a Woman’s Heart (Multnomah). She and her husband, Mike, have three grown children.
Find out more at www.sueduffybooks.com.
You can find purchasing information for this book here.
I am reviewing The Sound of Red Returning as part of a blog tour. You can read other reviews of this book here. I was provided a free copy of this book by Kregel Publications in exchange for an honest review. As such, the opinions stated above are my own.
